GIRLS talk (the Lena Dunham thread)

Mixed feelings about Girls (and S4). Notably not enjoying this season (so far) as much as others; considering giving up on it.

Yet I do want to give Dunham credit for something I'm not sure has been much discussed. There's a lot of cartoonishness in Girls. But (in all seasons) the depiction of male/ female sexual relationships has a surprising complexity, nuance, even courage. (Much of the charge of the previous seasons is the unfolding complexity of Hannah's and Adam's relationship.)

E.g. abortion in last episode. No matter how one as tv watcher reacted to the early scene (whether you feel Adam is the asshole or Mimi-Rose is the asshole; the dress is blue-black or white-gold), the episode was fair to and acknowledged both deeply felt and authentic positions.

It's ironic because Dunham's IRL messiness (e.g. memoir-ed alleged Republican rapist or sister pebbles-- on which topics I haven't read ILX) provoked opposed extreme reactions. But while (I think) Dunham is probably IRL an asshole; her fiction is nuanced and complex and (even against certain politically correct supposed "SJW" "feminist" preconceptions) brave-- just in conveying a descriptive (not prescriptive) experience from both male and female perspectives.

NB not that it makes any difference but I'm an XX female.

PS If I had to pick a "side," I'd pick Mimi-Rose. But I was also completely empathetic to Adam's POV.

I think this is an admirable skill for an author/ creator (what Bakhtin calls polyphony).

lol everyone in this show is so batshit

mimi rose giving that laundromat woman the poem was so eyerollingly lol

Elijah again w the best lolz

this was one of the funniest episodes in a while for me. the taxi scenes (both ace and mimi's) were absorbing, and the whole laundromat conversation on artistry lol. it hits on a lot of things at once that people are thinking but not talking about. dunham's characters are like caricatures grounded in reality. ace is fucking absurd but you know (or at least can expect) he exists.

have I successfully avoided it somehow or does this show not generate as much thinkpiece-ry as it used to?

it's moment def seems to have passed (ceded ground to Broad City I guess?)

it's pretty boring / not very good / been on for four years / ratings are the lowest they've ever been / dunham isn't really writing the episodes anymore

http://headlineplanet.com/home/2015/02/18/ratings-girls-togetherness-hit-new-viewership-low-marks/

bummed that Looking is doing so poorly; that thing is a jewel

I think I am the only person watching Togetherness

Looking is worthless garbage though

I also watch Togetherness, sorry to see it's not going well.

I am watching togetherness but I can't say I like it very much. I was pretty shocked when it was announced it was coming back for another season.

I agree that Looking is p ridiculous

Togetherness does this thing where it undercuts what would otherwise be sappy with some fairly brutal emotional cruelty. the mushroom trip in this last episode had me cracking up tho

I think I am the only person watching Togetherness

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, March 3, 2015 2:13 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the last two have been really good. esp the first scene with seemingly homeless Mary Steenburgen chasing duplass Out Of The Woods.

manic pixie dream retiree

Looking is worthless garbage though
― gybe horses (Stevie D(eux))

seriously, i skipped the first season and picked it up this go round and it's quite good.
last episode was A++

I may not "get" togetherness because at first blush everything it does seems pretty tired. however, def agree it does get to some pretty emotionally intense moments.

I may not "get" togetherness because at first blush everything it does seems pretty tired. however, def agree it does get to some pretty emotionally intense moments.

Yes, this gets at why I want to like togetherness yet it annoys me. It's like the bones of the show-- the characters and their situations, overall and from ep to ep-- are pretty hackneyed. Then there are these "emotionally intense moments," but they don't really lift off, transcend the hackneyed set-up (also they tend to be like talky confrontations, which tell too much more than show).

Compared e.g. to Duplass mumblecore, which (whatever you think of mumblecore) avoided cliches and, though talky, revealed things more enigmatically about the characters through dialogue.

Maybe I've been spoiled by stuff like High Maintenance (and Broad City); the HBO half-hours (though likable) seem more disappointingly predictable? commonplace? this season.

I watched the first several episodes of Looking from S1 and it was like conventionally attractive affluent dudes complaining about their important problems like being hit on by people less attractive than them, idk I had reaaaaally high hopes it wd be tackling more substantial issues but so far it's just been disappointing as all hell and I resent it deeply.

i still haven't seen S1, jump to S2 and let me know what you think? Like the last ep in particular.

I had reaaaaally high hopes it wd be tackling more substantial issues

well one of them's dating a non-conventionally attractive HIV-positive character so.... progress? it's still p stupid (I did not see the last episode)

the fact that we aren't discussing Girls on its own thread kinda indicative of the nosedive this show has taken...

(Actually, the only Duplass mumblecore I've seen is Puffy Chair, and I don't really remember it. Probably thinking more of Bujalski's stuff, which I like.)

forks I'm marathonning S1 so that I can catch up to S2 and watch it and see what all of this fuss is abt

cannot rep for season 1 at all! in fact, i think my lack of backstory for the characters has been beneficial as I gotta figure out in media res what their deal is.
would strongly recommend jumping into s2, e2 and catching up with me there. would love another opinion, maybe i'm insane.

I think I am the only person watching Togetherness

I really like it. It's very sad, in a way I appreciate.

I really hated the pilot of Broad City and didn't watch any further, and am always baffled when people are, like, Broad City is what Girls should be.

best ep of the season! first 5 minutes were hilarious, kinda reminded me why i loved it in the first place.

I was kind of amazed that Hannah just decides to be a teacher halfway through an episode and Poof!! she's a teacher by the opening shot of next episode, just gets the job just like that, also seems to be weirdly engaged and decent as a teacher, what???

Same as. My first thought was "huh? is it that easy to get a teaching job in the States?"

but there were scenes explaining that at the school she was teaching at they don't even expect her to have a degree in teaching

& she sez she's a substitute I think

like, her first interaction w/fran was p expositionary to this effect

she was a sub at a private school, which is not as hard a job to get. Also, I liked Fran, and I also liked the very simple way he just excused himself from the story and, presumably, the show.

Not disliking this series as much as everyone else, I think it's fine. I also like Togetherness a lot, which admittedly is married-people-mid-life-crisis territory and by default not exactly groundbreaking, but it has some pretty rough moments of truth. Also I have a mad crush on the woman from Heavenly Creatures who plays Michelle.

still really enjoying this show, too. and togetherness feels like 30something to me, in a good way (note: i have not really watched 30something since I was a kid in the 80s)

i'm dreading if they make something of jessa saying shes still in love w/ ace or whatever. that really felt like a misstep to me, as did Hannah minimizing the taxi hitting the old lady

It was a good Girls ep. Liked Fran too-- nice curveball, turned out to be a perfectly good date. Actually one interesting and unusual thing about this show is that the guest characters are often (intentionally depicted as) more likable than the main characters.

Jessa's an especially awful person this season, isn't she.

It's interesting how unlikability (antipathy) and likability (empathy)-- often leaning to the former-- are so intricately threaded in the characters on Girls, not just from ep to ep but line to line, moment to moment. An experience well-illustrated by Hannah's dizzied reaction to Mimi-Lee (full of shit & manipulative/ self-aware & sweet/ both at once?).

Jessa is just straight up evil at this stage. I dont know where her character is going.

what's with this btw? is this an NY thing we're not privy to?

http://40.media.tumblr.com/0f28f79e2b78baab4b6af49bab36335e/tumblr_nkkdqpJafw1smuhzqo1_1280.jpg

douchebaggery

just more contrived bullshit tbh

i've never seen him as anything but Spock and i'm not sure i'd have even recognised him tbh.

it's quinto right? or isn't it? honestly wasn't sure

it's insane that people are Looking-bashing in here, this season > the current season of Girls and certainly >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Togetherness, did you guys all give up after a couple early episodes or what?

^

seriously gtfo with Togetherness, it's Sundance Jury Prize: The Series.

Simon H OTM with both his ranking of HBO's Sunday night ennui series and also with his hatred of Togetherness